隘 (ài): (bound form) narrow, (bound form) a defile, a narrow pass

隘 (ài) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) narrow.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 阝 (semantic) and 益 (phonetic). It ranks #2826 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 隘 hill. Its radical form 阝 (mound) appears in many related characters such as 那 (nà, (specifier) that), 都 (dōu, all), 院 (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 阝 mound12 strokesFrequency #2826阝 semantic益 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (bound form) narrow
  2. (bound form) a defile
  3. a narrow pass

Etymology & Origin

隘

pictophonetichill

Decomposition: ⿰阝益 (layout: left-right)

Components:阝semantic益phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing 隘 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
狭隘xiá ài(of a path etc) narrow
隘口ài kǒumountain pass
关隘guān àimountain pass
隘路ài lùdefile
要隘yào àistrategic pass
心胸狭隘xīn xiōng xiá àinarrow
山隘shān àimountain pass
隘谷ài gǔravine
8
Total compounds
38
As first character
63
As last character
0
As middle character

隘 appears in 8 compound words: 38 as the first character, 63 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 隘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

狭xiá
0.6322,286 co-occurrences
勇yǒng
0.4701,668 co-occurrences
剥bāo
0.410174 co-occurrences
胸xiōng
0.404384 co-occurrences
口kǒu
0.4034,320 co-occurrences
陋lòu
0.38478 co-occurrences
溪xī
0.383690 co-occurrences
关guān
0.3671,548 co-occurrences
窄zhǎi
0.347114 co-occurrences
守shǒu
0.341732 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

隘字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

ài zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "隘" is not frequently used in everyday life.

Tatoeba

别让狭隘的人让你相信你的梦想过于宏大。

Bié ràng xiá'ài de rén ràng nǐ xiāngxìn nǐ de mèngxiǎng guòyú hóngdà.

Don't let narrow-minded people convince you that your dreams are too big.

Character Family

阝 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mound radical

阿ā鄙bǐ部bù邓dèng都dōu陡dǒu防fáng附fù隔gé际jì

Related Characters

那nà都dōu院yuàn部bù队duì阳yáng阴yīn际jì随suí邮yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced ài

哎āi哀āi唉āi挨āi癌ái矮ǎi蔼ǎi艾ài爱ài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 隘 (ài) mean in Chinese?
隘 (ài) primarily means "(bound form) narrow." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2826 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 隘 and 宽?
隘 (ài) and 宽 (kuān) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 隘 (narrow) vs 宽 (wide).
How many strokes does 隘 have?
隘 is written with 12 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 隘?
The radical associated with 隘 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 隘?
隘 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 益 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝益 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 隘?
Common words with 隘 include: 狭隘 (xiá ài, "(of a path etc) narrow"); 隘口 (ài kǒu, "mountain pass"); 关隘 (guān ài, "mountain pass"); 隘路 (ài lù, "defile"); 要隘 (yào ài, "strategic pass"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 隘 (ài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ài: 哎 (hey!), 哀 (Ai (c. 2000 BC), sixth of legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God, also known as Li 釐|厘), 唉 (interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!)), 挨 (in order), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 隘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 隘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.